What is HDR?
HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. It allows for a wider range of colors, increased contrast, and more detailed shadows and highlights. It requires an HDR compatible display that is also capable of showing HDR content. This last point is very important as some monitors will say they are HDR / HDR10 compatible but aren’t actually able to show HDR content. Do your research before buying an HDR monitor as they vary wildly in price, quality, and overall functionality. Generally speaking, HDR will look better on an OLED display when compared to a VA or IPS panel.
What is a nit?
A nit is a unit of brightness, specifically measured as candelas per square meter (cd/m²). It is important to know the maximum brightness value of your display when configuring HDR shaders, as this will often be used for shader settings that mention “target brightness” or “output brightness”. You can find your display’s maximum brightness value by looking up your display’s spec sheet (literally Google display model spec sheet and it should be one of the first results).
It’s common for display manufacturers to list the SDR and HDR maximum brightness separately.
SDR brightness doesn’t usually exceed 300 nits whereas HDR maximum brightness can be anywhere from 400 to over 1000 nits or possibly even higher.
Does ReShade work with HDR?
Generally speaking, most ReShade shaders are not compatible with HDR; however, you can get around that in a few different ways. In theory you can get most shaders working with HDR but which method you’ll need to use can vary by game. If a game has the option to use different graphics APIs then the methods can vary with those as well. These methods are discussed below.
HDR with ReShade Methods:
Expect to do some experimenting to find which method works best for your particular use case. There often isn’t a best way to do things in most situations.
With the exception of Special K, games that use DirectX 9 or older need to converted to DX11/12 or Vulkan to work with any of the methods below; though it’s still recommended even with Special K, it’s just not required.
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Soop’s scRGB / HDR10 Converters – The only way to use ReShade with Native HDR or the popular RenoDX mods. Just place any shaders in-between the Before and After parts of the converter. You can use the converters alongside the various AutoHDR methods and inverse tonemappers as well. Just place Soop’s converters after the inverse tonemapper. https://github.com/smolbbsoop/smolbbsoopshaders
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AutoHDR Addon – a Reshade addon that’s used to convert a game from SDR to HDR. Must be used with one of the inverse tonemappers. Can also use in games that have native HDR, but you need to make sure HDR is disabled within the game’s settings. https://github.com/EndlesslyFlowering/AutoHDR-ReShade
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Lilium’s DXVK – a fork of DXVK that Lilium modified to give it HDR capabilities. Similar to the AutoHDR addon in that it’s used to convert a game from SDR to HDR. Must be used with one of the inverse tonemappers and if a game has native HDR you should disable it. Converts a game’s API to Vulkan which makes it useful for DX9 games. https://github.com/EndlesslyFlowering/dxvk
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Lilium’s Inverse Tonemapper – shader that is used to convert the luminance range from SDR to HDR. Must be used alongside the AutoHDR addon, Lilium’s DXVK, or Special K (when tonemap mode is set to Raw Framebuffer). https://github.com/EndlesslyFlowering/ReShade_HDR_shaders
Inverse Tone Mapper is sometimes abbreviated as ITM
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Pumbo’s AdvanceAutoHDR – shader that is an alternative to Lilium’s Inverse Tonemapper but can also be used to modify native HDR as well. https://github.com/Filoppi/PumboAutoHDR
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Special K – a separate program that can either be run “globally” in its launcher form or “locally” when you place the renamed SpecialK32/64.dll into the game’s installation folder (similar to how ReShade is installed when done manually). Can be used to modify a game’s native HDR or convert an SDR game to HDR. Has its own built-in inverse tonemapper but can also be used with Lilium’s inverse tonemapper or Pumbo’s AdvancedAutoHDR shader.
More info on Special K:
- Special K's pipeline remastering feature (OpenGL and DX11 only) is an advanced feature which allows the HDR remastering process to start earlier in the graphics pipeline (similar to RenoDX). In simple terms, it can make the final HDR output look better but isn't recommended for first-time users of Special K because of the additional steps it takes to get it configured.
- Recommend grabbing the latest version of the installer from the Special K Discord: https://discord.com/invite/specialk
- Special K gets updated often so I recommend turning on automatic updates. You can also grab updates from their Discord's nightly-builds channel.
- Special K is not compatible with most of Otis' camera tools but this will depend on the game it's being used in.
- Special K can also be used for much more than HDR but that's out of the scope of this quick overview.
RenoDX
Uses ReShade to inject itself into a game (in the form of a ReShade addon). RenoDX mods should be treated as native HDR, and as far as the graphics rendering pipeline is concerned RenoDX IS native HDR. RenoDX is the best way to experience HDR if you’re not using any other shaders. As mentioned earlier, you’ll need to use Soop’s HDR converters if you want to use non-HDR shaders with RenoDX.
List of all the currently available RenoDX mods can be found here: https://github.com/clshortfuse/renodx/wiki/Mods
Luma
Similar to RenoDX, but is generally more of an overhaul and often adds other features such as ultrawide support.
List of the current Luma mods can be found here: https://github.com/Filoppi/Luma-Framework/wiki/Mods-List